70 Quotes & Sayings By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Enough! we're tired, my heart and I.We sit beside the headstone thus, And wish that name were carved for us. The moss reprints more tenderly The hard types of the mason's knife, As Heaven's sweet life renews earth's life With which we're tired, my heart and I ..In this abundant earth no doubt Is little room for things worn out: Disdain them, break them, throw them by! And if before the days grew rough We once were loved, used, - well enough, I think, we've fared, my heart and I. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Books, books, books! I had found the secret of a garret room Piled high with cases in my father’s name; Piled high, packed large, --where, creeping in and out Among the giant fossils of my past, Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there At this or that box, pulling through the gap, In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy, The first book first. And how I felt it beat Under my pillow, in the morning’s dark, An hour before the sun would let me read! My books! . Elizabeth Barrett Browning

My letters! all dead paper, mute and white! And yet they seem alive and quivering Against my tremulous hands which loose the string And let them drop down on my knee to-night. This said, -- he wished to have me in his sight Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring To come and touch my hand. . a simple thing, Yet I wept for it! -- this,. . the paper's light. .Said, Dear I love thee; and I sank and quailed As if God's future thundered on my past. This said, I am thine -- and so its ink has paled With lying at my heart that beat too fast. And this. . O Love, thy words have ill availed If, what this said, I dared repeat at last!. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Better far Pursue a frivolous trade by serious means, Than a sublime art frivolously. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I am one who could have forgotten the plague, listening to Boccaccio's stories; and I am not ashamed of it. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

We get no good by being ungenerous, even to a book, and calculating profits...so much help by so much reading. it is rather when we gloriously forget ourselves, and plunge soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound, impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth--'tis then we get the right good from the book. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Good aims not always make good books. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

It is rather when We gloriously forget ourselves, and plunge Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound, Impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth--' Tis then we get the right good from a book. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

In this abundant earth no doubt Is little room for things worn out: Disdain them, break them, throw them by! And if before the days grew rough We once were lov'd, us'd -- well enough, I think, we've far'd, my heart and I. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Quick-loving hearts ... may quickly loathe. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

And I breathe large at home. I drop my cloak, Unclasp my girdle, loose the band that ties My hair...now could I but unloose my soul! We are sepulchred alive in this close world, And want more room. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The picture of helpless indolence she calls herselfsublimely helpless and impotent I had done living I thought Was ever life so like death before? My face was so close against the tombstones, that there seemed no room for tears. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

And wilt thou have me fashion into speech The love I bear thee, finding words enough, And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough, Between our faces, to cast light on each? -I dropt it at thy feet. I cannot teach My hand to hold my spirits so far off From myself--me--that I should bring thee proof In words, of love hid in me out of reach. Nay, let the silence of my womanhood Commend my woman-love to thy belief, -Seeing that I stand unwon, however wooed, And rend the garment of my life, in brief, By a most dauntless, voiceless fortitude, Lest one touch of this heart convey its grief. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Alas, I have grieved so I am hard to love. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I tell you hopeless grief is passionless, That only men incredulous of despair, Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air Beat upward to God’s throne in loud access Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness In souls, as countries, lieth silent-bare Under the blanching, vertical eye-glare Of the absolute heavens. Deep-hearted man, express Grief for thy dead in silence like to death– Most like a monumental statue set In everlasting watch and moveless woe Till itself crumble to the dust beneath. Touch it; the marble eyelids are not wet; If it could weep, it could arise and go. . Elizabeth Barrett Browning

You're something between a dream and a miracle. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How, Dearest, wilt thou have me for most use? A hope, to sing by gladly? or a fine Sad memory, with thy songs to interfuse? A shade, in which to sing–of palm or pine? A grave, on which to rest from singing? Choose. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The wisest word man reaches is the humblest he can speak. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

And yet, because I love thee, I obtain From that same love this vindicating grace, To live on still in love, and yet in vain Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Yes, " I answered you last night;" No, " this morning, sir, I say. Colours seen by candlelight Will not look the same by day. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The heart doth recognise thee, Alone, alone! The heart doth smell thee sweet, Doth view thee fair, doth judge thee most complete, –- Though seeing now those changes that disguise thee. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

You have touched me more profoundly than I thought even you could have touched me - my heart was full when you came here today. Henceforward I am yours for everything. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

His answer was - not the common gallantries which come so easily to the lips of me - but simply that he loved me - he met argument with fact. He told me - that with himself also, the early freshness of youth had gone by, & that throughout it he had not been able to love any woman - that he loved now for the first time & the last. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

With my lost saints - I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life! - and if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I thought once how Theocritus had sung Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years, Who each one in a gracious hand appears To bear a gift for mortals, old or young; And, as I mused it in his antique tongue, I saw, in gradual vision through my tears, The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years, Those of my own life, who by turns had flung A shadow across me. Straightaway I was 'ware, So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair; And a voice said in mastery, while I strove, -- Guess now who holds thee?-- Death, I said, But, there, The silver answer rang, -- Not Death, but Love. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

True knowledge comes only through suffering. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Earth changes but thy soul and God stand sure. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Just for a handful of silver he left us Just for a ribbon to stick in his coat. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Oh to be in England Now that April's there. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Good to forgive Best to forget. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

God's in His Heaven - All's right with the world! Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Who so loves believes the impossible. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Open my heart and you will see Graved inside of it "Italy." Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Love doesn't make the world go round Love is what makes the ride worthwhile. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Oh to be in England Now that April's there. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Let no one 'til his death be called unhappy. Measure not the work Until the day's out and the labor done: Then bring your gauges. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I give the fight up let there be an end A privacy an obscure nook for me I want to be forgotten even by God. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

And each man stands with his face in the light of his own drawn sword. Ready to do what a hero can. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face. A gauntlet with a gift in't. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Best be yourself imperial plain and true! Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A woman's always younger than a man of equal years. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Until they are of the age to use the brain. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Light tomorrow with today! Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The year's at the Spring And day's at the morn Morning's at seven The hillside's dew-pearled The lark's on the wing The snail's on the thorn: God's in his Heaven - All's right with the world! Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Many a fervid man writes books as cold and flat as graveyard stones. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

And trade is art, and art's philosophy, In Paris. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Who so loves believes the impossible. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

If thou must love me, let it be for naught except for love's sake only. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

For tis not in mere death that men die most. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The Greeks said grandly in their tragic phrase, 'Let no one be called happy till his death;' to which I would add, 'Let no one, till his death, be called unhappy.' Elizabeth Barrett Browning

You were made perfectly to be loved - and surely I have loved you, in the idea of you, my whole life long. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality? Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

An ignorance of means may minister to greatness, but an ignorance of aims make it impossible to be great at all. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

If you desire faith, then you have faith enough. Elizabeth Barrett Browning